Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Our bodies.

I'm just curious.And I can't let this information get outside my knowledge.

First, they say that if you find that when you're laughing, then you tear up, consider yourself lucky.I'm going to explain this in my own words...Laughing and crying, apparently, acts up on high-arousal feelings.Though we 'sometimes relate crying to sadness', which is true, to many extents.Well, most of the times, anyway.

Fact is, it's 'just the way we evolved'.

Why do onions make us cry?To be honest, I've been thinking of it everytime I cut onions.Which is not often now than ever before, my sister being around now; which means, less work for me, yay.

When we cut onions, 'we rupture the cells', it produces some enzyme called...Propanethial Sulfoxide.It is, thus, no more than irritating gas, which our brains interpret it as being wanting to get the stuff out of our eyes; which produces tears.Basically, the more we cut, the more we cry.Apparently, when you refri... uh, chill it in the fridge, the enzyme release would be 'slower'.Since 'cold temperature slow down the release of the enzymes'.Also, the 'highest concentration of enzymes is at the bottom of the onion', cut it last to postpone the 'weeping', as they remarked it.For as long as possible, too.

Story time.

Last Thursday, I recalled, I moved my arm.Guess what, it sent some strange eerie sounds; of means, my joins cracked.Connected to the shoulder, I suppose.But it was more of the.. some sort of nerve breaking sound.My friend was worried.Haha. Though it hurt, honestly.Have you ever cracked your knuckles?Or.. do you EVER crack your knuckles?I do. Yay me.The knuckles and shoulders, are the ones the usually 'crack'.It is called the diarthrodial joint.Inside the joint capsule, is something called the ... synovial fluid.Also containing dissolved gas.

When you stretch the joint, you're actually compressing the gas and fluid in it, causing the nitrogen-rich gases to escape the synovial solution, of which; we hear as the 'pop' sound. Once the release of gas is done, the joint is a bit more flexible.

But knock this out; you can't immediately crack the same spot right after you cracked it.This is because;

the gases released in a pop must first reabsorb into the fluid, a process that takes 15 to 30 minutes.

If you crack your knuckles frequently, it is advised to take a breather for about.. 30 seconds instead.Cracking knuckles won't lead to arthritis, but it may lead to decreased grip strength.

And I know this, from 'Grandma Black.' Her knuckles no longer are strong; which of course, can be because of her age.But just be careful, eh?

Goose bumps (scientific name: piloerection) pop up when you're cold or afraid. A tiny muscle at the base of each body hair contracts; together, they appear as naked bumps on the flesh. They made sense eons ago, when humans still had a natural "fur coat." Back then, fluffing your ruff would warm the body by trapping an insulating layer of air between the hairs. And standing your hair on end was intimidating to predators or enemies (picture a cat facing off with a dog). Evolution has since stripped humans of their pelts. Now goose bumps are, of course, no medical issue. If you're uncomfortable showing off your vestigial physiognomy, dress warmly, place yourself in calm environments, and avoid horror flicks.

Hehe, I became lazy to rephrase it.My English is sucky, so.

There was this one time; Connor asked if I noticed the twitch of his eyelid.I was like, "Oh, man, that is normal. I had one a week back, though honestly, it worried me."That made him laugh, or chuckle, I suppose.

This annoyingly common condition is known as eyelid myokymia. Not a lot is known about eye twitches, which are more likely to occur in the lower eyelid than in the upper, though they're probably caused by the misfiring of a nerve. But experts know that fatigue, stress, and caffeine all increase the likelihood of the pesky twitching. So do eyestrain, poor nutrition, excessive alcohol intake, and allergies. Fortunately, eye twitching is almost always benign and usually goes away by itself. To put an end to a bout of the eye flutters, cut down on coffee and alcohol and give your eyes--and your whole body--a good night's rest.

Yeah, the caffeine, would occur to me.I'm still struggling to cutting down, however.

Body temperature is regulated in the brain by the hypothalamus, which signals the body to give off heat in warm conditions and trap heat (or shiver, generating heat in muscles) when it's cold. Iron plays a role in this process, so people with anemia (commonly caused by iron deficiency) often feel chilly. Poor circulation--due to high blood pressure or medications, among other culprits--can leave the extremities deprived of heat. An underactive thyroid gland can also slow a person's metabolism to a point where the body generates insufficient warmth. A recent study suggested there may even be a genetic predisposition to toward tolerance of cold. If you're the type who needs to wear sweaters and wool socks in the summer, eat iron-rich foods like lean red meats, beans, and dark green leafy vegetables, which can counter anemia. And avoid nicotine, which constricts blood vessels and leads to poor circulation.

I had to laugh at this.Sorry. To the article.Because, my sister would always ask in curiousity why I wear two layers of clothes, when it is like, pretty hot.

Yes, the outer ears do. Starting at birth, the ears are, proportionally, the body's largest feature, with a Spock-like prominence. They grow rapidly until about age 10, then slow to the languid pace of about 0.22 millimeter per year, according to a study by Britain's Royal College of General Practitioners. Other studies show that the earlobe itself also lengthens throughout life (men have longer lobes than women). However, the size of the ear canal, which is formed by bone and cartilage, does not increase into old age.

Oh no!I'm committing one the seven deadly sins, sloth.Heh, I'm just lazy at that.And I like to see the documentary on the history channel. Though it is like, mostly Christian-based; though once, Greed, they mentioned a little something about Islam.Which of course, overjoyed me.

Babies, of course, can be born with birthmarks and "beauty marks," but it's true that upon entering the world they have no freckles, which the skin produces (using excess pigment) in response to sun exposure. As babies get out in the sun, those with fair complexions and light eyes will be especially prone to developing freckles (and will have a higher likelihood of skin cancer and melanoma later in life). "Those freckles on the redheaded kid's cheeks aren't cute--they're sun damage," says Robin Ashinoff, MD, director of dermatologic surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center. "And freckles probably also indicate damage to the DNA in your skin cells." Children and adults alike should have their freckles monitored regularly by a dermatologist and vigilantly use sunscreen of SPF 30 or higher.

OMG!Good things I didn't have freckles.It is, mostly, odd for people here to have freckles as a baby. It happens, on rare cases.We are just, the way.

Called paresthesia, pins and needles are caused by blocked blood flow to a pressed nerve. If you sit too long in an awkward position--or even just with your legs crossed--you may press hard enough on a nerve to interrupt its signaling to the brain, causing your feet, for example, to "fall asleep," or go numb. This is not the same as a pinched nerve, a longer-lasting condition that occurs when a part of the body, swollen because of injury or misalignment, applies steady pressure on a nerve. Paresthesia is usually felt in the extremities--hands, feet, and ankles. That crazy-making prickly sensation is the resumption of pain messages to the brain. Simply changing your position is almost always enough to allow the nerve to resume communication. But prickly feelings more rarely can be symptoms of diseases as diverse and serious as diabetes, lupus, and MS. If your pins and needles don't resolve quickly with a change of body position, see a doctor.

Is this like, cramps?Like the strange feeling, the numb, that you can't feel the bones?I suppose.I have it, every single Monday morning, since our School Assembly is like, sometimes, SO long.It's boring, and boring.Just the word.It usually takes a few seconds for it to fade away for me. Painful.. nerve-wrecking.

Why Do You See Halos Around Lights?

This phenomenon falls under the category of "spherical aberration"--just one of several examples of how the human eye is optically imperfect. In daylight, the pupil narrows to a very small opening, allowing light to hit the very center of the lens. At night, when the pupil dilates dramatically to allow maximum light to enter, your eye is using a much larger swath of its lens to see. "The farther out on the lens you go, the less perfect the optics are," says Duffner. "And as you get off center, those light rays won't be focused to the center of the eye." You see circles, well, because your lens is round. Almost everyone sees these rings, and if you've always seen them, you're probably just fine, he says. But halos can also be caused by opacities in the lens--a sign of cataracts. So if seeing halos is new to you, see a doctor for a cataract exam.

Ah.. this is, one of my favourite past-time.Really.I used to like, I still do, seeing lights at night.Narrowing the lights, like, especially in Paris once; it being the City of Lights.It is like a star to me.A very beautiful star, at that.

Two classic causes of a "side stitch" are running and prolonged laughter. Those activities have at least one thing in common: exertion of the diaphragm. "When you laugh really hard, you're sucking in a lot of air, which fills the lungs and pushes down on the diaphragm while the abdominal muscles are also contracting and pushing up on the diaphragm," explains Robert Gotlin, DO, a sports physician at Beth Israel Medical Center and former director of orthopedic rehab with the New York Knicks. All of which, of course, happens scores of times each minute when you're howling. The repeated compression can produce a muscle spasm that we all know as a stitch.

"Sometimes when you laugh a lot, you get a pain in your right arm as well as the side stitch. That's because the nerve that supplies the diaphragm also goes to the right shoulder," he says. So, in addition to busting your gut, a hearty laugh can mistakenly make you think you're having a heart attack. Try breaking the rapid cycle of diaphragm punishment that we call laughter by slow, deep breathing between fits of hysteria. And avoid eating big meals, which draw blood to the stomach, before settling in for an evening of 30 Rock reruns.

To everything, there is a bad and good thing.I wasn't wrong.I don't like, laugh for too long. Hysterics, as they say.Laughing for me, is short moments.Then I would stop, then start again.It'd end only, after I think something is not worth being interpret as 'funny' anymore.For the time, at least.

Well, that is all, for now.I'm reading more, but I guess this post is already long as it is.